In recent years, in order to address environmental problems, activity for reducing the amount of CO2 emission is spread, and a distribution by an electronic file using an electronic mail and an electronic filing are increased to reduce a quantity of printed copies, however, it is realistically difficult to eliminate printing on a recording sheet in offices etc. Thus, in offices etc., by performing so-called ecology-printing to reduce the number of recording sheets to be printed, efforts to reduce recording sheets, toner, power consumption at the time of printing etc., are being made. Specifically, the ecology-printing as described above can be performed, for example, by switching color printing, single-sided printing, and one in one (one-up) for printing one page on a recording sheet to monochrome printing, double-sided printing, and N in one (N-up: N is two or more) for performing N-up printing of a plurality of pages on a recording sheet, respectively.
For example, in the case of performing copying with an MFP (digital multi-functional peripheral) etc., provided with a printer function and a copy function, when a system administrator etc., previously sets environmentally-friendly copying conditions such as N in one copying and double-sided copying as initial set values, it is possible to execute copying under the copying conditions of the initial set values unless a user intentionally changes the copying conditions in each copying. This makes it possible to perform ecology-printing relatively easily.
However, in the case where printing data is transmitted from a PC (personal computer) etc., used by a user to the MFP to perform printing with the MFP, a setting of printing conditions of a printer driver installed in the PC needs to be changed to conditions of ecology-printing, while in the case where a plurality of PCs are connected to the MFP through a network, printing conditions of a printer driver in each of the plurality of PCs need to be changed, thus posing a problem of taking a lot of time to change processing.
Moreover, since installation of a printer driver in a PC is performed by a user as the occasion demands, it is hard even for an administrator of the MFP to recognize all PCs in which the printer driver is installed, and difficult to change printing conditions of the printer driver of all PCs.
With regard to this, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-332100 describes a print setting sharing support apparatus in which initial set values of a printer driver whose printing conditions have been previously set by an administrator etc., can be downloaded by means of a Web function to incorporate in the printer driver, and the printing conditions of the printer driver can be shared among a plurality of PCs.
In addition, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 63-96673 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1-188867 describe a copier which reads a job sheet on which a mark etc., for instructing copying conditions in copying is described to facilitate input work of the copying conditions, and thereby enables inputting the copying conditions in accordance with the mark etc.
In the case of a technology described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-332100 above, input of initial set values of a printer driver is performed by a user such as a system administrator from his/her own PC to a print setting sharing support device, however, since an inexperienced user etc., does not know printing conditions to be input as initial set values, there has been a problem of taking a lot of time to input setting of initial set values or inputting inappropriate initial set values erroneously.
Moreover, in the case where initial set values of a printer driver are input by using a job sheet described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 63-96673 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1-188867, since a mark, a code, or a pattern corresponding to printing conditions such as the number of sheets to be printed are only added on the job sheet, it is a problem for a user not to recognize, at a glance, what printing conditions are to be set by the job sheet. Therefore, there has been a possibility that the user performs input setting of unintended printing conditions as initial set values of a printer driver.